Rachel Ahlers, Jamie Fitzwater Leigh Reiniche and Lindsey Stock are not your typical college students. They’re reserved, quiet, boarder-line shy and never mean. All that changed Friday night as the four Tennessee-Martin volleyball players embarked on unfinished business — an Ohio Valley Conference tournament championship and an NCAA tournament berth.

For the Tennessee-Martin volleyball team it’s a project they started a year ago when they won their first OVC regular-season championship. The project was delayed in the finals of last year’s OVC tournament when Eastern Illinois pulled the upset.

“Within a couple of hours after that match we started focusing on what we had to this year,” said UT Martin head coach Chris Rushing. “We had unfinished business.”

The Skyhawks are ready to put the finishing touches on their job at 1 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 23) when they meet Southeast Missouri State in the OVC championship. The Skyhawks rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat Murray State 3-2 in the semifinals of the tournament Friday night at Skyhawk Fieldhouse.

The Skyhawks dropped the first game 30-28 after leading 7-2. The game was tied at 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. Tennessee-Martin jumped out front 20-18 and forced Murray State to call a timeout. The break helped as Murray State eked out the 30-28 victory.

Murray State won game two 30-28. The game teetered back and forth and was tied nine times. Murray State, seeded No. 4 in the tournament, broke the deadlock at 19-all and never looked back although the Skyhawks kept in close.

“To be honest, I was a little worried after the second game because Murray was playing really well,” Rushing said. “They hit .314 in game two, and they were just turning it on. I told the girls in every single timeout to just play steady for the rest of this match and we can win it.”

The idea of unfinished business kept creeping into Rushing’s mind and he made sure he told the team about getting the job done. “Look around, look at this crowd, this is the best crowd we’ve ever played for. Just thinking about everything we’ve gone over for the last few years was enough to motivate them,” Rushing said.

In game three, Tennessee-Martin jumped out front 3-2 on a service ace by Reiniche and never looked back en route to the nine-point victory.

The Skyhawks won game four 30-28. Murray took control early in the battle, but the Skyhawks evened the game at 6-6 with a block by Stock and Fitzwater.

In game five, Tennessee-Martin relied on Reiniche who had 11 kills, two in the 15-7 final game. The Skyhawks had nine kills in the final game and turned in a .500 hitting percentage, compared to Murray State’s negative .062.

The Skyhawks’ comeback was ignited by the net play of Fitzwater, who finished the match with 10 blocks, a new career high for the junior from Naples, Fla. Fitzwater also had 14 kills and a .265 hitting percentage. Stock hit .342 with 15 kills and nine blocks, while Ahlers had 17 kills and a .233 hitting mark.

“Jamie Fitzwater getting ten blocks, that’s going to be in the record books,” Rushing said. “That’s a career high. Lindsey Stock, nine blocks, I believe that is a career high. Seventeen team blocks, and I think the majority of them came in the third, fourth and fifth games, the games that we won,” Rushing said.

Murray State hit .168 in the match and collected 10 team blocks and 75 kills. Abbi Gui and Paige Sun led the way with 22 and 20 kills respectively.

Tennessee-Martin defeated Murray State twice during the regular season, but the second match went five games before the Skyhawks pulled out the victory. Murray State finishes the season with a 12-12 record.

The No. 1-Seeded Skyhawks are 23-5 and advance to the tournament finals after a first round bye and the victory over Murray State.

The job is not finished for the Skyhawks. “We’re going to think a little bit and celebrate a little bit for the next hour, and hopefully the girls can go to sleep,” Rushing said. “I think they are going to be a little bit too excited for tomorrow’s match, but SEMO is a pretty good team. The theme for tomorrow is we can win, if we just play our game.”

If the Skyhawks play their game they can also finish the job the right way.